Microsoft has announced Vista's release dates.
From a security standpoint what choice should consumers
take during this Christmas shopping season? Most will be faced with Windows XP only or Windows XP with Microsoft's Express Upgrade option to Vista. Federico Biancuzzi interviewed a wide range of security researchers and anti-virus folks to get some consensus on the security of Vista over Windows XP for consumers, with some advice for corporate users as well.

Anti-Virus vendors

Carmen Maierean (BitDefender Product Manager):
Microsoft Vista from a security standpoint is above Microsoft XP
mainly because of the new rights management system which will prevent
unauthorized applications from running with administrator privileges. Nevertheless
the customer has to take in consideration that the newly developed operating
system will not protect him from malware and hackers and a proper integrated
security solution is required. BitDefender is working on a new version that
will support Microsoft Vista and plans to ship it at the beginning of the
next year.

Mikko H. Hypponen (F-Secure's Chief Research Officer):
Vista won't be out for the consumer market during this Christmas season. So
people can't buy Vista computers for Christmas even if they wanted to.
If you want to buy a system with fairly few security issues, get a
machine which runs Ubuntu, OSX, FreeBSD or SuSE...

Ryan Sherstobitoff (Panda Software's Product Technology Officer):
Windows XP and Windows Vista differ in regards to their security architecture. Windows Vista does
not ship until January 30th, 2007. Therefore, Windows XP will be the
pre-dominant operating system during the Christmas shopping season. Some
manufacturers may have Vista as an OEM on some systems which will be
available to consumers; however, most major anti-malware security
products will not be compatible with Vista during the first period of
December and [most AV companies] have indicated specifically to have support after the
release. It is recommended a user purchase a system with Windows XP with the
intention to upgrade to Vista.

Carole Theriault (Sophos' Senior Security Consultant):
For the average home user, Vista is a good option. There are some excellent
security enhancements in it that will make it far more difficult for
hackers and malware writers to attack these machines. Of course, there may
be some niggles in the initial release, but even so,
it will be far more secure than XP.

Vista may be of concern to those users who would like to use old
applications (some of them will not run in Vista by default), but users
need to balance the pros of having better integrated security versus
running older applications. XP users who feel cautious about running Vista
initially will want to make sure that they run SP2 on their machine. SP2
offers far better security than running XP alone.

Laura Yecies (general manager of Check Point's consumer division - ZoneAlarm):
We wouldn't advise consumers to center their computer purchase around
an operating system. If you purchase a Windows XP system, you can always
choose to upgrade later. Either way, with XP or Vista, you'll still want
a good independent software solution to protect you from today's
attacks. While Vista marketing touts increased security, we also expect
a new OS be analogous to waving a red cape in front of a bull...hackers
won't be able to resist the challenge. That may result in even more
vulnerabilities for a consumer to patch.

Olga Kobzareva (Kaspersky's Head of Corporate Communications):
From a security point of view, of course Windows Vista has several
improvements which make it more secure than Windows XP SP2. But still
there can't be any 100% safe operating system, and we have to remind
the users that migrating from XP to Vista doesn't mean there's no need for antivirus
software. Windows Vista will still need separate antivirus solutions to be installed.

David Perry (Trend Micro's director of global education):
Microsoft tells us that Vista will have the best security ever, but a
lot of that security will come not from the Vista OS itself. Much of
the new security is tied to the 2007 release of applications like
Outlook and Internet Explorer (inside Microsoft these are commonly
called the "2k7" releases). Our testing (at Trend Micro) shows that, with
proper Internet Security software, Vista is actually safer.

The end user really can't lose right now -- any modern name brand
computer you buy right now will come with a free upgrade to Vista -- so
you can get that new computer for Christmas, and wait to see how things
shake out.

Brian Trombley (McAfee's Product Manager):
From a security perspective, it doesn't matter whether you choose a new
PC with Windows XP or Vista. It's critical, however, that you use
up-to-date security software and that you enable automatic updates.

Most new computers include pre-installed security software, but that
software is out-of-date when you first start the computer. Hence, the
security software should be updated right away. If security software is
not pre-installed, make that your first priority when you start your
computer.

Rowan Trollope (VP of Engineering, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec):
It is important for consumers to know that the Vista operating system is
not a security solution in and of itself. It has an incomplete set of
security features that are not enough to protect users from the
fast-evolving threat landscape. No matter which operating system consumers
choose this holiday season, they need to implement a complete security
solution that protects them from today's evolving security threats.

Symantec's solutions, like Norton Internet Security, provide consumers
with the comprehensive protection they need. Norton Internet Security
and Norton AntiVirus Vista compatible versions will be available upon
Vista's release. Any existing Norton Internet Security or Norton
AntiVirus 2006 or 2007 customer will be eligible for a free Windows
Vista compatibility upgrade. We currently have a Vista compatible
public beta of Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus that
consumers can
try out.